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Israeli Soldiers Execute Palestinian Girl in Occupied Jerusalem

As part of the Israeli policy to use excessive and lethal force against Palestinian civilians, who are suspected by Israeli soldiers of intending to carry out stab attacks against the soldiers, on Sunday, 07 May 2017, Israeli forces killed a girl at the southern entrance to the Damascus Gate “al-‘Amoud” in occupied East Jerusalem’s Old City. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns this heinous crime. PCHR stresses this crime was committed after the Israeli political and military leaders gave the Israeli soldiers the green light to shed the Palestinian blood in light of the international community’s policy to tolerate Israel for crimes committed by the Israeli soldiers against Palestinian civilians.

According to PCHR’s investigations and testimonies by eyewitnesses to PCHR’s fieldworker in occupied Jerusalem, at approximately 19:00 on the abovementioned day, Fatmah ‘Afif ‘Abdel Rahman Hjeiji (16), from Qarawet Bani Zaid village, northwest of Ramallah, was walking 10 meters away from a police checkpoint, which is permanently established at the southern entrance to the Damascus Gate. One of the soldiers suddenly screamed out, “knife”. Immediately, the Israeli soldiers stationed there opened fire at the girl. As a result, 30 live bullets hit her body; some of them penetrated her chest and waist from the right side. Therefore, Fatmah was killed on the spot. Eyewitnesses emphasized that after the girl fell on the ground, the Israeli soldiers continued shooting at her and not only attempting to wound or arrest her.

Following this, the Israeli police deployed in the area closed the scene and prevented anyone from approaching the girl, whose body had been on the ground for an hour. The police officers attacked and pushed dozens of civilians away. They chased Mahmoud Abu Sbeih (9) until he fell from height in the Damascus Gate area and was then taken to the hospital to receive medical treatment.

Luba al-Samri, the Israeli police spokesperson, published a statement claiming that “According to the preliminary information available, it was an attempt to a stab attack carried out by a girl that was neutralized without injuries among the police officers.”

PCHR condemns this crime that resulted in the killing of Hjeiji on grounds of suspicion of a stab attack, and:

1. Calls upon the United Nations to offer international protection to the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) and to guarantee that protection;

2. Calls upon the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to ensure that Israel commit to the application of Geneva Conventions in the oPt as a State Party to those conventions;

3. Demands the states signing the Geneva conventions to fulfill their obligations to guarantee the application of the conventions by resorting to the principle of Universal Jurisdiction to prosecute the war criminals regardless of their nationality or place of the crime to pave the way for prosecuting the Israeli war criminals and stop the impunity they enjoy for decades; and

4. Calls upon the state applying the principle of Universal Jurisdiction to not be affected by the Israeli pressure aiming at putting an end to the Universal Jurisdiction to keep the Israeli war criminals shielded by the impunity they enjoy.